FirstFT: Trump kicks off big infrastructure shifts with AI project and green rollbacks

Good morning and welcome back. Today’s agenda:

• Trump puts $300bn of potential infrastructure spending at risk

• ByteDance’s $12bn AI plans

• Netflix’s subscriber record

• And Alex Soros has Lunch with the FT

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has put more than $300bn of potential federal infrastructure funding at risk, according to US investors. Trump’s “Unleash American Energy” executive order has halted federal disbursements to manufacturers and infrastructure developers.

The money was provided under Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law. This includes almost $50bn in Department of Energy loans already agreed and another $280bn worth of loan requests under review, according to analysis by the Financial Times.

But while putting infrastructure spending in peril, Trump unveiled a massive new AI infrastructure project with OpenAI and SoftBank. The two groups said they were looking to spend $100bn in Big Tech infrastructure projects, rising to as much as $500bn over the next four years.

The joint venture, dubbed Stargate, aims to boost capacity to train and run new AI models. The president said the project would “include the construction of colossal data centres”, starting with a Texas site that the companies said was already being built. Here are more details on Stargate.

And more highlights from Trump’s first full day in office:

For more day 2 administration news go to our live blog and for in-depth coverage of Trump’s second term sign up for the White House Watch newsletter. The FT will also be holding an exclusive subscriber webinar, featuring FT reporters and guests to discuss the policy priorities of the new administration. Sign up here.

And here’s what we’re watching today:

• Davos: ECB president Christine Lagarde will be one of the speakers at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. The FT continues to bring you live updates and analysis from the Swiss mountain resort.

• Results: Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Procter & Gamble and electronics equipment maker Amphenol report earnings.

• Steve Bannon: Donald Trump’s former adviser is due in court to face fraud charges stemming from a nonprofit’s push to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.

This Friday, join consumer editor Claer Barrett, writer of the Sort Your Financial Life Out newsletter series, as she discusses how to invest in 2025 with other FT experts. Register for free.

Five more top stories

1. Netflix added a record 19mn subscribers in the fourth quarter as viewers flocked to stream the new series of Squid Game and live sporting events, including a much-hyped boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. The platform’s shares surged more than 14 per cent in after-hours trading.

2. Goldman Sachs has promoted a new generation of executives to head its key investment banking and trading businesses as the bank overhauls its top ranks and prepares to capitalise on an expected Wall Street boom under US President Donald Trump. Read more on Goldman’s effort to refresh its leadership bench and position itself for future challenges.

3. Exclusive: ByteDance plans to spend more than $12bn on artificial intelligence infrastructure this year, double the amount it laid out last year. The TikTok parent also plans to invest nearly $7bn overseas to beef up its foundation model training capabilities using advanced Nvidia chips. Here’s a breakdown of the investment.

4. The memecoins launched by President Donald Trump and his wife days before the inauguration are damaging the industry’s reputation and risk a backlash from investors, crypto executives have warned. The total nominal value of $TRUMP and $MELANIA initially surged over the weekend but have since lost more than half their value.

5. Mike Madigan, the longest-serving legislative leader in US history, took the stand to defend himself in his corruption trial this week. The testimony was the latest twist in a trial that has featured tales of Viagra bribes and sex acts in massage parlours — and gripped a city in which politics has been called a “blood sport”.

Today’s Big Read

Donald Trump relished the thought of returning to the White House and the power it would give him to take down the “deep state” actors who once opposed him — and almost sent him to prison. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser and one of the president’s harshest critics, had his security clearance revoked within hours of Trump’s return to office as the vendetta campaign began.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Edward Luce: Very little stands in the way of the president’s goal of remaking America, writes our US national editor.

• Judge-shopping: Trump will probably appoint more judges sympathetic to conservative activists — and corporate America should prepare, writes Brooke Masters.

• Alex Soros: The chair of Open Society Foundations sits down with FT editor Roula Khalaf to discuss his vision for the liberal megadonor his father created.

• Gaza ceasefire: Many Palestinians have returned to find only sand, twisted metal and shredded concrete where they used to live.

• Luxury sector: Brands are looking to US consumers and a post-election Trump bump to drive their recovery after a trying year.

Chart of the day

What impact will Donald Trump’s second coming have upon the world, asks Martin Wolf in his latest column. He points to a “fascinating” report which illustrates the different attitudes to Trump’s return among people who live the “global south”, who are generally more positive, versus those located in countries that are traditional allies of the US.

Take a break from the news . . . 

Almost 19,000 video games were released last year via digital distribution platform Steam, and 2025 promises far more. In an age of unprecedented gaming abundance, FT critic Tom Faber writes it’s time to rethink how and what we play.

Source: Economy - ft.com